A Winter Wonderland at Carlton Bank, North Yorkshire

For those readers who don’t know, London is my my adopted home, but I’m actually a Yorkshire girl at heart as this is where I spent most of my childhood.

So I was made up when it decided to snow while I was visiting my folks in North Yorkshire over Christmas. It mostly fell on the hills of the North York Moors which surround the village where I grew up. But this suited me fine, as it meant I could go for a gorgeous hill walk knee deep in pure white snow while still being able to get on my train back to London that day with no weather-related delays.

Just take a look at these pictures of our trek up Carlton Bank. We were graced with beautiful sunshine, sparkling untouched powder and paragliders to peer at overhead. It felt like we were in a winter wonderland in the Swiss Alps, not my own back yard!

The view from the top…

This was a perfect opportunity to show off with the panoramic mode on my iPhone…

At the top of Carlton Bank you’ll find a lovely little caff called the Lord Stones Cafe. It’s been revamped in the last year or so and is a fantastic spot to go camping, or if you’re more of a ‘glamping’ kind of person, they have several pods for you to stay in.

If camping’s not your thing, this is a really quaint place to go for afternoon tea and cake, BBQs in the summer or a hearty evening meal. They also have a lovely little farm shop selling souvenirs, North York Moors photography and yummy locally-made things likes chutneys, cakes, biscuits and locally-sourced meat (including venison burgers and gourmet sausages).

We had just enough time to warm up with some lattes and home-made cake before we made the 40 minute (slippery) walk back down the hill.

I might have taken the countryside for granted while I was growing up. But this definitely makes me realise how lucky I was to grow up in such a beautiful part of England.

If you haven’t been to North Yorkshire, you must visit! And try out the Belted Galloway Beef, it’s the Lord Stones Cafe’s speciality.